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Audacity of Truth
Gaffetastic:
Vice President Joe Biden had his “oops” moment Wednesday speaking in a 49er-crazed SF when he told a crowd at a city political fundraiser that “the Giants are on their way to the Super Bowl.” - SF Chronicle, 1-18-12
Haditha: The left’s “Gotcha”
Have you noticed the steady drumbeat from the media and the hardcore anti-war left with regards to the allegations of what happened at Haditha? There are harsh condemnations before the final reports have even been released, and there’s a distinct stench in the air as they leap from the condemnations to using what allegedly happened as an excuse to delegitimize the entire Iraq war.
If attrocities (alleged or actual) committed by US troops automatically disqualifies a war as being illegitimate, I guess this means that every single war the US has ever been involved in – including WW’s I and II, were ‘not worth fighting.’
Allahpundit, who has been a blogging machine this week, explains it well:
To cover it, as we’ve done here, in order to find out what went wrong is one thing; to exploit it in hopes of delegitimizing the entire war, and in particular the heroism of the rest of the troops in the field, is something else entirely. And it’s already begun, both on television and in print.
[...]
If nothing else good comes from this incident, perhaps at least it’ll spell the end of the knee-jerk compulsion from some quarters to insist they “support the troops” while ignoring or dismissing out of hand their every accomplishment. I’ve always thought part of the reason Bush is despised so viscerally is because pacifists no longer are permitted to blame the soldiers who actually carry out the killing; as Henninger says, America is too ashamed of how Vietnam vets were treated to allow that again. So Bush becomes the lightning rod, taking not only his own heat but the heat that would have been spent on the troops themselves if this were 1970.
The Henniger he refers to is Daniel Hennigner from the Wall Street Journal. Henninger puts in context some of the ways this war is similar, yet different, from the Vietnam war. Read on:
This Memorial Day week the news is preoccupied with stories of the Marine squad that allegedly killed civilians at Haditha, a town in Iraq. The narrative of this story has pretty much set in already: It’s another My Lai, we all know they did it, the brass covered it up, and prison sentences for homicide are merely a formality.
Haditha is indeed the new Abu Ghraib. What this most importantly means is that any U.S. military action overseas now, no matter its level of justification, can be taken down by the significance assigned to events by the modern machinery of publicity. This explains why the U.S. commanders in Iraq announced yesterday that all soldiers in the next 30 days would take what the headlines are calling “ethics training.” Of the some 150,000 U.S.-led troops there, Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the U.S. combat commander in Iraq, said “99.9% of them perform their jobs magnificently.” Yes, and 99.9% of them, after all they’ve been through, will deeply resent the clear inference they lack “core values.” Is that different than standard “Corps values”?
Stories of apparently malfeasant U.S. troop behavior are arriving daily now. A military truck whose brakes failed from overheating crashed and killed Afghan civilians. Press reports are now fly-specking whether the troops shot over or at the rock-throwing mob of more than 300 that surrounded them. Every one of these troops surely knows the story of Mogadishu. Been there, never again. But there will be investigations of their behavior.
Finally came the even more lurid pregnant-woman shooting. As transmitted around the world by the BBC: “A pregnant Iraqi woman in labor and her cousin were shot dead by U.S. forces as they rushed to a hospital along a closed road, police and relatives say.” The BBC’s next four sentences neatly sum up the common story line now in play around U.S. troops: The soldiers said the car failed to heed a stop warning in a prohibited area; the driver said he heard no warning; U.S. troops will be “trained in moral and ethical conduct” and this “comes in the wake” of the Haditha allegations.
In El Paso, Texas, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, whose death from a roadside bomb is the event said to have precipitated the Marine shootings at Haditha, said simply: “I don’t even listen to the news.” This may be the widespread reaction as the Haditha story overwhelms all else–enough, I don’t want to hear about it.
And there begins the Iraq Syndrome.
Some elements of the newly ascendant Democratic left may welcome it, but no serious person in American politics should.
The Vietnam Syndrome, a loss of confidence in the efficacy of American military engagement, was mainly a failure of U.S. elites. But it’s different this time. This presidency has been steadfast in war. No matter. In a piece this week on the White House’s efforts to rally the nation to the idea of defeating terrorism abroad to thwart another attack on the U.S., the AP’s Nedra Pickler wrote: “But that hasn’t kept the violence and unrest out of the headlines every day.” This time the despondency looks to be penetrating the general population. And the issue isn’t just body counts; it’s more than that.
The missions in Iraq and Afghanistan grew from the moral outrage of September 11. U.S. troops, the best this country has yet produced, went overseas to defend us against repeating that day. Now it isn’t just that the war on terror has proven hard; the men and women fighting for us, the magnificent 99%, are being soiled in a repetitive, public way that is unbearable.
The greatest danger at this moment is that the American public will decide it wants to pull back because it has concluded that when the U.S. goes in, it always gets hung out to dry.
Two major military reports will come out soon on the Haditha incident, and no one will gainsay justice if that is required. But the atmosphere around this event is going to get uncontrollably manic, and that will feed the dark, inward-turning sentiments already poisoning the country’s mood over issues like the immigration debate.
Good for Democrats? Don’t count on it. After this, the public appetite for a Democratic president’s “humanitarian” military intervention in a Darfur or East Timor will be close to zero.
One suspects that U.S. troops were party to some awful events in the Pacific and European theaters of World War II, all gone in the mists of history and the enemy’s defeat. Not now. Gen. Chiarelli’s magnificent “99.9%” notwithstanding, it’s the phenomenon of the so-very-public 0.01%–at Abu Ghraib, on an Afghan street, at Haditha–that is breaking America’s will this time.
Bingo.
And just who is is that helps perpetuate the myth that .01% = all of the US military? Shouldn’t be too hard to figure out, now should it (scroll)? Nope, not at all.
More: Rick Moran blogs about the press recyling old news about alleged US military atrocities.
Related Toldjah So posts:
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One suspects that U.S. troops were party to some awful events in the Pacific and European theaters of World War II, all gone in the mists of history and the enemy’s defeat.
Not quite gone – the firebombing of Dresden comes to mind.
The May Lai Massacre was the result of the actions of a small handful of US soldiers. We don’t know about Haditha yet (despite the hyperventilating of the MSM and John Murtha), but critics of the Iraq war would be hard pressed to prove that this is an example of murderous intent on the part of the entire US military.
Dresden, on the other hand, cost 35,000 or more Germans their lives – and was part of a general military strategy to “punish” the German people. Winston Churchill was repulsed by the bombing although it was carried out by Air Marshall Arthur Harris. I know of no historian who argues that bombing Dresden was anything other than pure revenge.
I am curious – did the Dresden firebombing somehow negate the war against fascism? Do we owe Hitler an apology for “an illegal war of occupation”? Should we withdraw all US troops from Europe (where they have been since the end of WWII)? How far does moral equivalency go?
Finally, I have a hard time believing the crocodile tears of the “anti-war” movement about the children of Iraq. What about the children slaughtered almost daily by the “insurgents”? Where was their outrage over the genocide in Cambodia? Why should anyone take the antiwar movement seriously after that?
- Political/moral equivalency is one of the modern plagues of humanity. Thats how the moonbats get from 0.01% to “all the military”.
- Just the same I’m hard put to remember ANY Conservative Politician EVER making a statement about “putting a bullet between the eyes” of a sitting president, or any president or any other official for that matter. At some point something needs to be done to tone down the crazyness of the left, and some of their equally crazy public statements.
- What makes the outreageous comment even more eggregious, and stupid, is that he preceded it with “…[how] do I say this diplomatically…”. The Left really needs to get some common sense, or theres going to start to be some repercussions, and I can’t say they don’t deserve it.
- Bang
The point you’re missing is that the US went into Iraq with the express purpose of helping the people of Iraq by overthrowing Saddam and turning Iraq into a democracy. When your soldiers start massacring 4 year olds and covering it up, it brings into question exactly how much good you’re doing for the Iraqi people and their fledging democracy. Killing civilians is not helping the Iraqi people, is not helping establish the rule of law, and doesn’t promote the idea of a legimate Iraq government.
WW2 was not fought to “free the German people from Nazi opression” or to “free the Japanese people from their Emperor”, that war were fought to defend the US from German and Japanese aggression. That’s the big difference with Iraq, and that’s why atrocities such as Haditha do delegitimize the US war there.
And you know absolutely, Jacob, that the troops in question murdered 4 year olds how, exactly? Murtha told you? Don’t you think it might be a tiny bit more rational to wait until the investigation, and trial if the evidence warrants one, before screaming and wetting your pants?
And you have a very narrow and inaccurate view of the war if you think the only reason the war was started was “the express purpose of helping the people of Iraq.” That was one beneficial reason, but removing an unstable, dangerous, genocidal maniac who had designs on the whole Middle East, and yes, did have WMDs in the past, and IMO still had them (you do know they have found WMDs in Iraq don’t you?), and still had the capability of building more, who constantly violated international treaties and agreements, who almost daily shot at US aircraft, etc. etc. etc.
Next you’ll be telling us you really are a conservative, ex military, Republican, no, really!
- As I said in an earlier post, the Left has to follow an all out assualt on the entire vWOT program, or face yet another round of loses if they can’t marginalize things. As it stands, so far they just look weak, with the cut and run memes of their various leaders. Bad situation they’ll try to remedy by stepping up the rhetoric to a fevor pitch. Pretty transperant, and not nearly as effective as in the past, prior to the advent of the internet, and high speed communications.
- A lie is followed right out the door with the truth these days, instead of lies leading by miles and days. Perceptions still count, but lies/propaganda can only mimic truth for a very short time, unfortunately for the left, so they tend to not carry the day anymore. In a world of hard facts, the left is in a alien landscape, and a world of hurt.
- Bang
Jacob, the German aggression you mention is not clear. It’s true that the US Merchant Marines were tangling with German U-boats before Pearl Harbor, but the US was supplying England at the time. Neither Roosevelt nor Hitler sought to make a war-worthy issue of it. And WWII was sold at least partially by Roosevelt as an attempt to liberate Europe (although half of it ended up in the Soviet Empire – some liberation!). At the end, the Marshall Plan was used to help rebuild post-war Europe (including West Germany). Germany did declare war on us first, but no reputable military historian thinks that Hitler was in any position to make good on that threat (at least not for a long time).
Would Hitler have threatened America? I think eventually he would have, if Nazi Germany had managed to crush Europe and the Soviet Union first. Thankfully we did not have find out the hard way.
My question was this: If Haditha makes our presence in Iraq illegitimate, does the firebombing of Dresden also make WWII illegitimate? The loss of civilian life was far higher in Dresden than in Haditha.
And as for Iraq – have you not heard about the new democratic government there? The Iraqi people now have a chance at democracy, something they never had under Saddam. The willingness of the anti-war movement to gloss over this is astounding.
Severian is right – let’s wait for the investigation to be concluded.
I have to clear up a possible misconception about my earlier posts. Even if one takes the harshest possible view of the Dresden firebombing – that it was a war crime unjustified by military necessity – that in no way, shape or form makes the moral case for Nazi Germany. Nazism, Communism, Fascism, Islamofascism – they are all ugly assaults on humanity and I detest them all. We can second-guess how WWII was fought, but the end of the Third Reich is good no matter how you slice it. I wish the anti-war movement would realize the same is true in Iraq and the end of Saddam’s reign.
They think they can’t afford too Mwa. They’re focusing on 2008, and feel they can’t overcome the reticence of the electorate too change parties during a war. Coupled with their lack of any plan they can actual share with the electorate (Socialism always gets kicked to the curb by the average American regardless of party), I personally give them 1 chance in 10. Not good odds.
- Bang
- Anyone seen Bak lately?
“…and that’s why atrocities such as Haditha do delegitimize the US war there.”
At least Jacob is finaly being honest. He really doesn’t support the troops.
This is the new line from the left, folks. Get ready for more of it.
More to the point though, to people like jacob, unless our troops do everything perfectly all of the time, the entire effort is illigitmate. The terrorist insurgents, however, are allowed to murder and pillage at will with nary a word of criticism. If one police officer abuses a suspect, is law enforcement as a whole illigitimate? of course not, yet that is the argument Jacob and his sort are making.